Happy Employees Need Less Oversight

Do you wonder at times how you keep your staff motivated and engaged? I remember when I was a newer manager I often wondered about that. As a sales manager, I had large quotas to meet this question often kept me up at night.

It seems that a Danish bank has cracked the code on employee engagement. They use a model called “self-directed leadership”. This is a leadership style where employees resolve 100% of their work decisions on their own. The bank operates under the assumption that everyone comes to work wanting to do their best. Instead of traditional management, where employees are told what to do they are provided coaching and guidance to make decisions on their own. The result is that this bank is recognized as one of the leaders in staff happiness and their customer service is so good that 80% of their business comes through referral.

If we treat people as who they can become, they will be inspired to rise to the level of our expectations. ~John C. Maxwell